There is something about India and winning the first edition of a tournament held in South Africa. The Indian Women’s team have won the inaugural edition of the Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup by beating England in the final at the Senwes Park in Potchefstroom.
The Shafali Verma-led side put on a comprehensive display in the final to beat England by a huge margin of 7 wickets. After winning the toss and bowling first, India restricted England to a total of just 68 as the bowlers put on a flawless display against a helpless English batting unit.
India’s chase got off to a poor start as star openers Shafali Verma and Shweta Sehrawat were dismissed early. However, a solid partnership by Soumya Tiwari and Gongadi Trisha put the Women in Blue back on track as they completed the win with six overs to spare.
India got off to a dream start Titas Sadhu and Archana Devi ran havok over the English batting unit as they both took two wickets each to put the Grace Scrivens-led side under all sorts of trouble. The new-ball pair’s effort was backed by the bowlers that followed as Parshavi Chopra took a brace too. Skipper Shafali, Mannt Kashyap, and Sonam Yadav took one wicket each while Tiwari produced a sublime run-out with a direct-hit.
Both Tiwari and Trisha scored 24 runs each as they safely guided India towards the target. Trisha was dismissed with three runs while Tiwari remained unbeaten and scored the winning runs too.
This is the first-ever ICC title won by an Indian women’s team. The senior side had previously lost the final of the 2005 and 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup and also tasted defeat in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup summit clash against Australia. Shafali and Richa Gosha were part of that side which went down at the MCG three years ago.
